Along with the rest of Ukrainians celebrating Independence Day, 19-year-old student Yulia Vishnivska was being warned of the growing threat of Russian attack.
But that didn’t stop her and hundreds of others from taking to the rooftops in central Kiev and staging an open-air musical protest.
“I heard on the radio the Americans warning that the Russians would bomb us today and I thought, ‘Oh my God, they’re trying to kill us,'” she said, as the setting sun lit up the pattern of her vyshyvanka, a traditional dress.
“But we’re used to it and we know we live in this dangerous situation, so we’re not scared.”
As a dozen black-clad orchestra musicians belted out Ukrainian classics, I pointed out one difference from the previous two Independence Day wars: Ukraine had now invaded and occupied Russian territory.
“When I saw the news from Kursk, Russia, it was an amazing event. It’s like a miracle for us. We are very happy,” Vishnivska said.
She said the fate of Russians in the border areas currently suffering, being displaced and endangered was a natural consequence of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine two and a half years ago.
“From that moment on, we started to hate them, and now… we want to kill them. It’s horrible. I know it’s not right for a human to say this, but we hate them. They want to kill us, and we can’t think otherwise.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky, who attended a number of Independence Day events in Moscow, delivered a pre-recorded speech from the Sumy region, just across the border in newly acquired Russian territory.
“Russia has waged war against us. It has violated not only our sovereign borders, but also the limits of cruelty and common sense,” he told the nation.
“It has continually sought one thing: to destroy us. And what the enemy has brought to our land has now come home.”
Nearly three weeks after the Kursk invasion, Ukraine now has control of much of the Russian territory it seized in a rapid, surprise attack.
On August 6, an estimated 10,000 elite Ukrainian troops invaded the border and in just a few days seized more ground in Ukraine than Russia had gained so far this year.
Since the operation began, the BBC has been in contact with one of the Ukrainian fighters now in Russia.
In his latest message to us, Serhiy (not his real name) made it clear that the situation is getting more dire:
“Russia has grown stronger. You can see this by the number of drone, artillery and aerial attacks. Russian sabotage and reconnaissance units have also started to operate,” he wrote.
All this means that the Ukrainian side is suffering more casualties, he said.
“At the beginning of the operation we had momentum. Our losses were minimal. But now we are losing many soldiers due to Russian firepower. Moreover, the Russians here are fighting for their own land, just like we are fighting for our own land.”
Serhiy said his earlier euphoria was now turning to skepticism.
“Many of us do not understand the meaning of this operation. It is one thing to fight for Kharkov and Zaporizhia. The Kursk region is an unnecessary problem for us.”
Zelenskiy said Operation Kursk was aimed at capturing Russian soldiers and that a prisoner exchange took place on Saturday that freed 115 Ukrainians, but he could not disclose its other objectives.
He also said the operation was a preemptive strike to deter Russia from attacking Sumy.
Despite the sense of justice and retribution that the Kursk invasion brought, it remains a risky strategy for Kiev.
The rapid advance must be seen in conjunction with Russia’s losses in eastern Ukraine, where it continues to fight tough battles.
Moscow forces are approaching the city of Pokrovsk, which had a population of about 60,000 before the fighting.
It is one of the largest cities in the Donetsk region under Ukrainian control and is an important base for the defense forces.
“The situation is really difficult,” Nazar Voytenkov, 23, a former TV journalist and now a volunteer with the 33rd Mechanized Brigade in the defense of Pokrovsk, told us over a cracked phone line.
I asked if he was aware that Russian troops were being diverted to defend their own territory.
“No, I don’t think so. Russia has a lot of military resources in the Kursk region and other parts of Russia, and I think they are using them for this operation launched by the Ukrainian military.”
I asked whether pressure on Ukrainian forces in the region had been eased, a major hope for Kyiv.
“I don’t think the situation has gotten any easier. We still have enemies on all sides and they tried to get close again last week,” he explained.
“They tried to occupy our positions with about 10 armored vehicles and infantry, but we defended well. We won this battle and now we are waiting for their next battle. So, they are still here.”
While this weekend’s celebrations were undoubtedly energized by recent successes within Russia, Ukraine’s path to Independence Day next year is unclear and remains fraught with risk and uncertainty.
“This is just monotonous genocide,” Oleksandr Myked, one of Ukraine’s leading writers, quietly asserted.
We met him in the huge exhibition hall that once housed the Lenin Museum, where he had just finished giving a talk about his new book, which examines what Russia’s great classical writers thought about the country’s recent aggression.
It would be hard to find a more appropriate location to symbolize Ukraine’s progress since independence in 1991 and its determination not to be drawn back into Moscow’s sphere of influence.
“They want every missile attack to be called ‘another missile attack.’ They want the whole world to get used to it, to routinely, to normalize it, so that it becomes ‘normal genocide.'” Mikedo said of Russia.
I asked him what hope there is for Ukrainians as they endure the next 12 months until their next Independence Day.
“Now is the time to clearly understand what true patriotism is, and we know what it looks like,” he said.
His argument was that despite the mental and physical wounds and deep collective grief, everyone has an obligation to come out strong and ensure Ukraine’s survival.
“Yes, we may be tired, everything may be depressing, but we still have to save the country,” the Ukrainian writer said.
Additional reporting by Kayla Hermansen, Hannah Chornos and Anastasia Levchenko
